Repetitive Motion Injuries...could cost you $43,000
Repetitive motion injuries are a big problem for many employers. Why should you care? Because these claims cost on average $ 43,000.
Many employers and their supervisors do not understand the nature of repetitive stress, repetitive motion, musculoskeletal disorders, carpal tunnel and related injuries or doubt there is an injury at all.
Employees are really suffering but confuse the source of the injury which may not be work related.
Medical providers often attribute the injury to work causes without adequate medical history or evaluation, do a poor job of explaining the injury to their patient, do little to help the patient with recovery other than prescriptions or surgery, all of which are costly and may not help the patient/employee.
Increasingly these injuries are being experienced by employees in their 20's and 30's who face a lifetime of needless pain and suffering if their conditions are not appropriately addressed early and with the right treatment. These ailments have many names and causes, and often are not caused or made more severe by work.
Employers face the costs of these injuries both in lost productivity and employee turnover and in workers' compensation claims.
You can take action to deal with this issue and save money. Learning about repetitive motion or repetitive stress injuries is the first step. Prevention of repetitive motion injuries starts with effective training. Training objectives should feature:
- Recognition of risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and methods for controlling them, both in the workplace and outside of the workplace.
- Identification of signs and symptoms of MSDs
- Personal and workplace procedures designed to address and control risk factors
- The role of employees in preventing MSDs and ways employees can participate in your ergonomics program
The second step is to involve your supervisors in the process. Without cooperation and initiative at the supervisory level, no ergonomic program can be successful. To help prevent repetitive motion injuries among their workers, supervisors must be trained to:
- Understand repetitive motion problems and recognize the symptoms of illness.
- Ensure that employees who engage in highly repetitive work have frequent, short work breaks, do proper stretching exercises and can switch to alternate work
- Promptly report all repetitive motion injuries
- Take the injured employee to the medical provider for first treatment; make sure provider is aware of company return to work policy, before leaving verify any limits on work activities while recovering from injury...
- Follow up with employee affirming return to work policy, ask how responding to doctor's care.
- Ensure that the employee is observing any applicable work restrictions
- Continually monitor the work areas and employees they supervise for proper ergonomic practices and conditions.
Why It Matters...
Repetitive motion injuries account for hundreds of thousands of lost workdays every year. OSHA estimates that preventing just one MSD results in an annual savings of $27,700. (California ergonomic workers' compensation claims average $43,000)
Don Dressler Consulting has training materials available on this important issue. We can conduct injury inspections and ergonomic evaluations. Our clients have also found significant value in our intervention with medical providers when the employees involved were not making medical improvement.
Call Us Today: 949-533-3742
Don Dressler Consulting has helped many of our clients lower experience modifications, put injured workers back to work, investigate accidents and improve safety, and save money. email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
